My first-ever lunge line lesson

I have never before had a lesson on a lunge line, but I've always thought it would be a great opportunity to focus on my equitation, or just relax and loosen up to be more susceptible to changing how I do things.

I ended up on Colt, our newest lesson pony (who is not officially ready for the lesson program yet), on the lunge line, which still managed to be a bit thrilling. It was easier to focus on how I would ask him to trot, how I would ask him to walk (you just think walk and he does it). I also had to add turning him properly (he doesn't bend well yet) and doing something/anything/god-help-us when he would lose interest and charge at my instructor.

I made the most progress with stopping a habit of pulling too long (my half halts don't reward fast enough for him) - especially when he was charging the lunger.

I wish I could say I've conquered this pony after that lesson, but it's not even remotely true. Maybe in four lessons, or five. And maybe just alone in the ring. Being in a busy ring might take me 10 lessons. Yikes. 

Spontaneous Gallops II: The full ring edition

I failed in this last lesson. I know you arent supposed to declare failure, because you learn something every time. But really, guys, I had to eventually get off the green pony, and get on the veteran pony to finish my lesson.

I couldn't get him to slow down.
I couldn't get him to go straight.

I couldn't get him to stop walking over to his stall, which is in. the. ring. (who designed that?!?!) 

I looked like I didn't know how to ride. It would have been mildly embarrassing, but luckily, I am no longer an adolescent, so instead I just feel myself questioning any abilities I thought I have. 

The only tiny light bulb I got from all of this, was that I was using reins as the first cue, and then leg. Obviously, leg comes first in things like turning, so I need to stop that habit. Or I need to sit deep and back before I give a half halt to slow down (I'm probably leaning forward quite a bit). 

I also read an interesting point on Dressage Daily: If a young horse is excited and inclined to run, it's often best to ride these horses forward and then bring them back when they calm down. This is the opposite of what I do. The pony chose to ignore me, and ran over to his friends, while I got more nervous and pulled on his face. Also, I probably do half halts at the wrong moment (related to that first point), when I should really wait to say something clearer with the half halt.

Sometimes you have to get off the pony to get some clarity. It's a harder lesson to learn, but it's still a valuable lesson.

Powerful transitions

I continuously make the mistake of coming to the first jump without sufficient power and collection to get over it cleanly. I can hardly blame the bored lesson horse for this. We have no rhythm and no clue what the distance is, so it's very unorganized.

So we started by working on transitions to make him more responsive to my leg. We did a forward walk, adding more energy until we trotted, then went back to a walk and did it again. Then we did a forward trot with more and more energy until he broke into a canter, and did it all over again so that I could ask for a trot or canter quite easily.

From there, we went with a forward trot towards a jump, but then halted in front of it, and then asked for the jump (and grabbed mane!). This used the energy on the hind end to launch us forward.

We also worked on 2 jumps with a broken line. I was really bad at that. I'm really bad at fighting the horse to shove over when they know where I want to go and just want to cut corners. Part of it is where I'm looking and part of it is inside leg.

We finished with working on adding and subtracting strides on a straightaway. I need to plan ahead, so that when I go down from 4 strides to 3, I'm not jumping from a long distance.

There's progress in there somewhere, I just don't necessarily feel it, with all the basic things I still need to work on. OH, actually, the progress was me not falling off during an excited buck-turn after a jump. Tiny win.